31 January 2012

Five's Post

Five wanted you to see his Alien Conquest LEGOs. He got both these sets for Christmas. He constructed the Alien Mothership immediately, but waited to open the Earth Defense HQ until this past weekend.

When Five begins a LEGO project, he doesn't stop working until it's finished. His parents find this amazing for several reasons:

1. Five is color-blind. Or, in Two's words, suffers from CDS, or "Color Discretion Syndrome." Two is also color-blind, so he invented a cool acronym to describe it. We weren't surprised by Five's diagnosis, because he's always colored his humans green.

If you've ever flipped through a LEGO construction manual, you know they are all about shading. Half the pieces are grey or black. We are mightily impressed that Five succeeds in differentiating between the two.

2. Five is a jabber-jaw, a Chatty Cathy, a motor-mouth. Yesterday he told me that if he is able to sit quietly in the bus line all week, he'll earn twenty points. Then next week he'll get to sit at the cafeteria table and draw cartoons with Tony while they wait for the bus! The bus monitor, a fifth-grade girl, created this contest. I don't know her, but I like her because she's already figured out you catch more bees with honey than vinegar. She has a future in Special Education.

Despite his propensity to blather, Five is absolutely silent when he's building. Now, if only he would take a little longer to finish each set...ah, what a wonderful world it would be.

3. Five is the Captain's son. Three is almost a carbon copy of his father, except taller now, so we call him "Brown Captain." Five is "White Captain," because he's like an x-rayed version of him--same bone structure, just a lot paler.

The Captain cannot build LEGOs. I don't want to say he lacks spatial skills, because he can pack a trunk like nobody's business. But he is incapable of interpreting the LEGO manuals. He's always been a better leader than follower.

So, yesterday when Five showed me his Earth Defense HQ set, complete with Mobile Command truck, mini spaceship, and alien figures, I took a picture. I wanted to send it to his grandmother, so she, too, could be impressed.

"You should put this on your blog, " he said.

I wasn't aware he even knew about the blog. I'm still not convinced he knows what it's about.

"I think I've already written about your LEGOs on the blog," I said.

"But not these, Mom. These are really impressive. I mean, look inside the truck! You should definitely put these on your blog today, and then tomorrow you can go back to writing about whatever it is you write about."

Oh, I miss the Lego days. MadMax and I used to do legos. I loooove them. I would still do them, but three or four years ago, MadMax decided he was too old for them and hasn't touched them since. I'm considering buying myself the set of house-building legos they have in their catalog, but I think it would thoroughly annoy everyone in the house (except me) if I took over one of our two tables for lego-building. I can barely get away with it for jigsaw puzzles (which I also love, and imo are in the same category as Legos). Anyway. I totally get Five's obsession and I'm awed and impressed by his skills. Thanks for sharing, Five!

Five says he can't build you a space station, because he failed at the LEGO Space Shuttle. (He didn't really, he just lost an important piece.) I told him when he got older, he could build you a REAL one. He's on board.

Those ARE really impressive! Particularly given the CDS, because those manuals are crazy. Good job, Five. My eldest son wants me to post it to my blog whenever he makes something, too, but I appease him by allowing him to post it to the Lego sight where people he doesn't know give it thumbs-up. Much more satisfying for him. My middle son (I believe one year younger than Five) can't stop talking to save his life, even when building with Legos. Be thankful for your magic silencing Legos. :)

When I was in college I would talk about the fun things I would do with "the neighbor's kids." I didn't want to tie myself down in a conventional life, with a husband and children. The Universe laughed. But I don't think you need to stand on convention-- buy your LEGOs now, so you will be a master builder by the time the grandkids/neighbors arrive!

Very impressive job, Five! I will show the pictures to his cousin who will really appreciate them. It is amazing to watch them create with these bricks. Nick watched YouTube videos that kids create to explain their projects-- entire Star Wars battle scenes. The interest is waning here, which is sad. But I was glad that he liked the Technics set he got for Christmas.

I did enjoy watching a couple of older boys [at least 17 or 18 yrs old] pick out lego sets in the Lego Store one day. It was fun to see their excitment was still there :)

OMG Five - I am so impressed and at the same time a little sad that I was not there to help locate the pieces. I can't wait to see them in person and perhaps find that missing piece. I was good at that remember?